Chinese Dumplings From Toi-San Province

Описание: Have you enjoyed delicious handmade dumplings in a Chinese restaurant? Did they come out steaming and at the peak of freshness? I would like to show you how to make a local dumpling from the Toi-San Province. You can easily add (diced shrimp, shitake mushrooms) or change ingredients and adjust seasonings to your preferences, but this is the basic dumpling recipe.

This type of dumpling making is a fading art in the states as many second generation Chinese (first American-born generation) realize it can be quite time-consuming when it's easier to drive over to the nearest dimsum restaurant. Two batches of approximately 60 each (120) of this particular dumpling took us about three hours. I want to thank Corrine and Jeanie for taking meticulous notes and sharing them with me so that the recipe is as accurate as possible!

There is a misplaced segment. Note that Mrs. Choi tastes and adjusts the seasoning AFTER the sausages and cornstarch are added. Please forgive me for the uneven videotaping as I didn't want to miss any step in this wonderful opportunity to catch an expert in action!

Here is the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

Dough:
12 oz. Package BOT HA-CAO (pyramide) Steamed Shrimp Cake flour or a similar wheat flour and cornstarch mix
Slightly less than ⅔ cup tapioca starch
½ Teaspoon table salt
1 ½ Teaspoon cooking oil, then more if needed
3 Cups boiling water (If you boil 4 cups, the extra water will be there if you find that you need it.)

Filling is (more than) enough for 2 recipes of dough:
1 lb. Lean ground pork
2 Large kohlrabi (or similar vegetable), peeled and finely diced
4 Chinese sausages (Lop Cheong) boiled in water 5 minutes, then, finely diced
5 pieces salted turnip, 2” squares, finely diced
9 fresh water chestnuts, peeled and finely diced
1 ½ teaspoon cornstarch
Salt to taste
Cooking oil

Utensils:
Steamer, preferably two tiers and made of bamboo & wok/pot big enough to place steamer & a lid deep enough to cover; if no steamer or wok, any way you normally steam food will do.
Tortilla press, or if you prefer, use a rolling stick or rolling pin (old school and time-consuming!)

DIRECTIONS

Medium high heat, stir fry ground pork with a little oil and salt, breaking clumps down to little pebbles
Add turnip, stir; Add kohlrabi, stir; Add water chestnuts, stir and cover 2 minutes (For crisper chestnuts, add after the 2 minutes)
Add a few tablespoons cold water to 1 ½ teaspoon cornstarch, stir to dissolve, set aside
Remove lid, stir in Chinese sausage. Turn heat up, add cornstarch mixture, stir a minute to thicken. Taste and add more salt, if desired.
Remove pan from heat and allow filling to cool

After filling has cooled, combine dough ingredients and mix. Add boiling water a third at a time, stirring with chopsticks after each addition. We boiled 4 cups of water in case we needed more, but 3 cups were fine. Let cool a bit so you don’t burn your hands kneading. Add 1 ½ teaspoons cooking oil. Knead until the white specks of dough disappear. Add 1 teaspoon oil if dough is too stiff. If the dough feels sticky, sprinkle some tapioca starch and continue kneading until there are no specks.

Pull off a piece of dough, roll into an approximately 1” to 1 ¼” diameter log. Pinch off 1” pieces, roll into balls, place one at a time in the plastic covered tortilla press and flatten.

Take a dough round, make 8 small pleats with your thumbs, creating a pocket. Fill with approximately 1 teaspoon meat mixture, seal the dumpling and place on a tray. Can use tapioca starch if it’s sticky.

Line a steamer with aluminum foil or parchment paper and place dumplings in a single layer. (If using parchment, you can use a hole-punch or scissors to create steam holes. The steam holes will probably cut cooking time by five minutes.) Add water to the steamer bottom and cook. Mrs. Choi checked after 20 minutes and decided it needed 5 minutes more. Enjoy!